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41 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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How old is the Universe?
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The age of the universe is 13.7 billion years old.
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How old is our solar system?... The earth?
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The age of our solar system is 4.6 billion years old. The earth is 4.5 billion years old.
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What is our sky composed of?
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Our sky is composed of the sun, stars, planets, moon and comets.
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How long is one rotation of the earth?
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The earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours. This creates the day and night cycles.
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How long is a moon cycle?
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The moon changes cycles approximately every 29 days. The moon appears to move throughout all of the zodiac signs once a month.
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How often does the sun move through the constellations of the zodiac?
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The sun appears to move through all the constellations of the zodiac once a year.
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Describe the earth's tilt. When is the earth closest to the sun? Farthest? How do the earth's seasons work?
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The tilt of the Earth's axis is 23.5(deg). Earth is closest (perihelion) to the sun on Dec 21st but tilted away. It is farthest away (aphelion) on June 21st but tilted towards the sun. Earth changes seasons as it moves in an elliptical path around the sun.
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What is retrograde motion?
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Planets appear to wander as they move through fixed stars, move towards the east and show retrograde motion (westward motion; spin backward)
Caused when planet A moves from being behind planet B to in front of planet B. |
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How can we know what the universe was like in the past?
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Light travels at a finite speed?
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How do you and your fellow humans fit into the universe?
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On the scale of Uroboras, we are at the midpoint both in size and time.
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What is the universe?
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The sum total of all matter and energy.
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How are the motions and positions of the Earth and the Sun connected to what happens on Earth?
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Earth's rotation = 24 hr day, Earth's revolution = 365 day year, and Earth's tilt = the seasons.
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What are the Phases of the moon?
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New Moon, Waxing crescent, 1st Quarter, Waxing Gibbus, Full moon, Wanning Gibbus, 3rd Q, wanning Crescent.
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A.) How does a lunar eclipse occur?
B.) Solar? |
A.) at a full moon, on the node, (sun -> earth -> moon)
B.) at a new moon, on the node. (sun-> moon-> earth) |
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What is the difference between geocentric and heliocentric models?
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Geocentric = earth in the middle
Heliocentric= sun in the middle |
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How did the Greeks explain planetary motion?
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Geocentric model and Ptolemy's model. Earth in the middle, planets with orbits on orbits, circles on circles.
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Kepler's 1st law-
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The orbit of a planet about the sun is an ellipse with the sun at one focus.
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Kepler's 2nd law-
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A line drawn from the planet to the sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times
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Kepler's 3rd law-
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The size of the orbit derermines the orbital period.
D^3 / T^2 |
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How did Galileo solidify the Copernican revolution?
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Saturn is not a sphere, the moon has craters, the sun has sunspots, Jupiter's moons and the phases of venus.
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What is the celestial sphere?
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The imaginary sphere on which objects in the sky appear to reside when observed from Earth.T
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What is ecliptic?
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The sun's apparent annual path among the constellations
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What is a light year?
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The distance that light travels in one year which is 946 trillion km. An astronomical unit is the average distance (semimajor axis) of the Earth from the sun, which is 150 million km (93Million miles)
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What is cosmogony?
Cosmology? |
A theory about one's place in the universe.
The study of the overall structure and evolution of the universe. |
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Name the layers of the sun's interior
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1.) Core
2.) Radiative Zone 3.) Convective Zone |
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Name the layers of the Sun's atmosphere
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Photosphere, Chromosphere and Corona
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What causes solar activity?
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Convection combined with the rotation pattern of the Sun, faster at the equator than the poles. These gas motions stretch and twist the magnetic field lines. The twisted field lines are responsible for the features we see in the sun.
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Name the features of solar activity
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Sunspots, flares, Prominences, and coronal mass ejections
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How does solar activity effect humans?
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The coronal mass ejections in earth's direction can create geomagnetic storms in the earth's magnetosphere (Northern lights), hamper radio communication, distribute electrical power delivery and damage the electronics of the satellites orbiting the earth.
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Kepler
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1571-1630. German. Created first theoretical model to explain planetary motions
HAD SOME LAWS |
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What is the magnetosphere?
How is it created? |
The protective shield around the Earth's atmosphere
Convection in our outer core and a fairly rapid rotation |
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What is the nebular theory?
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Cloud is large and diffuse, and its rotation is slow. The cloud begins to collapse. Because of conservation of energy, the cloud heats up as it collapses. Because of conservation of angular momentum, the cloud spins faster as it contracts. Collisions between particles cause the cloud to flatten out into a disk with mass concentrated near the center and temperature highest near the center.
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Copernicus
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1473-1543. Was a priest and a lawyer. First sun-centered model of the solar system or universe
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Tycho
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1546-1601. Danish man, know for being the world's best naked-eye astronomer. Measured distances using parallax that disproved ancient ideas about the heavens.
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Galileo
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Italian, 1564-1642 first observations of the sun. When control status on archaic ideas of the universe- Sun had craters = not perfectly heavenly body, Saturn had rings = no all spheres, Sun has spots/ rotates = not perfect, Phases of venus means that venus orbits the sun therefore the universe MUST be heliocentric. FIRST TO USE TELESCOPE
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Doggon Cosmology
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Bunch of tribal africans somehow figured out the sirius star system on top of a mountain.
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Egyptian cosmology
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Flat earth - goddess= Geb
Heaven- goddess= nut Air & space- god= shu |
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Hebrew Cosmology
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Three part structure:
-flat earth -space between Earth and heaven -Heaven One god. |
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Greek Cosmology
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1st model of the univers
-Earth is a sphere -heaven is fixed stars on a sphere |
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In Ptolemy's model, planets in orbits are called
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epicycles
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Orbits in Ptolemy's model are called
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deferents
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